A study by engineering professors from Brigham Young University, Utah State University and the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology details exactly what happens when a liquid at rest — like the water in a bottle — is suddenly put into motion<\/strong>. Using high-speed photography, the team shows how the swift acceleration causes small bubbles to form in the liquid and then rapidly collapse, releasing a destructive shockwave.<\/p>\n The proper term for the phenomenon is called cavitation<\/strong>, a process well known to engineers for causing damage in pipes and marine propellers. The new study, published in the\u00a0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em>, details an alternative formula that more accurately predicts when cavitation will happen.<\/p>\n While the finding has immediate implications for many industrial processes interrupted by cavitation-induced damage, there’s also growing evidence linking cavitation to brain trauma<\/strong>.<\/p>\n “The brain is surrounded by fluid, and when you have impact, it’s possible you are experiencing cavitation within that fluid,” said study co-author Scott Thomson, associate professor of mechanical engineering at BYU.<\/p>\n Fluid dynamics experts know how to predict when cavitation will occur in a fluid already in motion, but their formula doesn’t work so well when a resting fluid is rapidly accelerated. The new study fixes that problem by finalizing a new equation that considers a fluid’s depth and acceleration.<\/p>\n For the brain, knowing this alternative cavitation formula could be used to better predict brain injuries caused by high-velocity impact<\/strong>. “And once we’re able to predict when that will happen, we can better design safety devices to help prevent serious brain damage,” Thomson said.<\/p>\n Those safety devices could be for athletic applications, such as football helmets, or even military applications.<\/p>\n “If a blast wave is above a certain magnitude, there may not be much we can do to prevent brain injury for a soldier,” said study author Tadd Truscott, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Utah State University. “But maybe a helmet can be developed to detect when that trauma has happened so a soldier can be removed from the front line and be saved from repeat exposure to blasts.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Brigham Young University press release: As many YouTube videos show, striking the top of a liquid-filled bottle can shatter the bottom. Now researchers are hoping to use new… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[357,6],"tags":[42,93],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23598"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23675,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23598\/revisions\/23675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Brain2.jpg\")
As many YouTube videos show, striking the top of a liquid-filled bottle can shatter the bottom<\/strong>. Now researchers are hoping to use new knowledge of that party trick to help fill a gap in something much more serious: brain research.<\/p>\n